


Welcome Distractions

by adrisbee



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Mentions of Tamlen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 01:33:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13307598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrisbee/pseuds/adrisbee
Summary: Leliana joins Mahariel as she takes guard again.It’s a welcome gesture. Night watches are lonesome affairs, and a companion makes the job easier. Especially a pretty, talkative one with a nice voice and entertaining stories. Very entertaining stories.





	Welcome Distractions

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt (from Anonymous): A first kiss between Leliana and my Warden.

Leliana joins Mahariel as she takes guard again.

It’s a welcome gesture. Night watches are lonesome affairs, and a companion makes the job easier. Especially a pretty, talkative one with a nice voice and entertaining stories. Very entertaining stories.

“Tell me the one about the noble with the birds in her hair.” Mahariel grins at her companion as they sit side by side at the guard post, keeping each other warm in the cool night air.

Leliana raises an eyebrow. “You mean the one about Lady Elise?”

“Yes, her. Creators, what possesses humans to put _live birds_ in their _hair_?”

“Fashion, of course. It _is_ Orlais.”

Mahariel snorts. “Live birds. In her hair. _Mythal’enaste_!”

“I admit, it was ridiculous by our standards as well. The court talked for weeks, and here I am all this time later, still telling it now.”

Leliana smiles and Mahariel hums in agreement, their eyes meeting over the fading glow of the campfire. Leliana’s, Mahariel notes, look almost like Tamlen’s. Safe. Familiar. Warm.

Almost everything else is different. Tamlen was forest, elfroot, and halla. Leliana is scented soaps, the flower she calls Andraste’s Grace, shoes and music. They both use bows, but where Tamlen was trained to hunt and protect, Leliana is trained for a different type of kill. His voice was best for scouting calls and mimicking the halla, hers is for enthralling an audience and encouraging her allies.

In the end, he’s gone, and she’s here. Leliana was with her at the Circle tower, at Redcliffe, in the depths of the Deep Roads. They’ve spent so many nights together—talking after dark, trading stories and secrets and laughter as they keep watch; stolen moments of happiness as they scrape together the troops Ferelden needs to fight the Archdemon. And for all the life she has left, Mahariel can’t bear to give that up.

“I like talking with you,” Mahariel replies, breaking the silence. “Hearing you, listening to your stories, telling mine. After leaving my clan, I never thought—it’s good to have someone to call lethallan. To have a companion again.”

Leliana pauses, her eyes still locked with Mahariel’s. “I trust you. I know you will be there when I need you. You are our leader, and my friend, and sometimes, I think that maybe we could be more than that…”

Mahariel’s breath nearly stops. _More_. “Do you mean that?” she breathes, her eyes wide and night air burning her lungs. She had hoped, of course, but didn’t really think-

“I… yes, I do.”

She doesn’t know how an Orlesian lady would do these things. Or an Andrastian, or another Warden, or even a bard. A good Dalish wouldn’t be doing this at all. Not with a human, not a Chantry sister. But no, that part of her life shattered a long time ago, and Creators forgive her, if she can find a source of light and happiness in this horror of taint and death she will _take it_.

“Come here.”

Leliana moves closer and Mahariel reaches upwards to cup her cheek, drawing her thumb across the smooth skin of Leliana’s jaw. She smells like soap and campfire and leather armor, and—did she use scented oils again? Huh. Her eyes flutter closed and she leans into Mahariel, and it’s effortless to tilt her jaw and guide Leliana’s lips to her own.

Kissing Leliana is like feeling the warmth of sunlight for the first time after weeks in the Deep Roads. Leliana hums in pleasure and Mahariel smiles against her, tilting her head for a better angle and pulling back just enough to catch Leliana’s lip between her teeth.

Leliana gasps. She’s been waiting for this, Mahariel can tell, because barely a moment passes before Leliana melts against her, hands curling around her waist and back, pulling their bodies together.

And it feels _good_. Leliana moves to deepen the kiss and Mahariel lets her, and when Mahariel pulls back it’s to climb on her lap and kiss her again, her own head spinning as Leliana peppers kisses up her collarbone and neck. It’s the nip on the ear that does her in because she lets out her own gasp, and that’s the moment she thinks Leliana decides to get as many of them out of her as she can while keeping all her armor on.

It feels like an age has passed before they finally separate, cheeks flushed and lips bitten, but still holding one another in a loose embrace.

“I didn’t think I could have this again,” Mahariel whispers, reaching up to brush a stray lock of hair behind Leliana’s ear.

“Nor did I.”

“Even if I didn’t expect this, I—I’m glad my love is you.”

Leliana’s breath hitches, and it’s Mahariel’s turn to be surprised as the unimaginably human love of her life takes her hand and pulls her back on her lap for round two.


End file.
